


Something to Treasure

by Lizardbeth



Category: Terminator Salvation (2009)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-23
Updated: 2009-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-05 02:25:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizardbeth/pseuds/Lizardbeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some months before the film, Kate has some news for John.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something to Treasure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [musesinspiration](https://archiveofourown.org/users/musesinspiration/gifts).



Kate sat beside him as John slept dead to the world. He rarely let himself sleep so deeply, but he'd had to walk back after machines had made the squad's position. Barnes had to help him most of the way because he had a bullet in his hip, which he hadn't told them about until Blair had noticed the blood.

Kate had removed the bullet, bandaged him up, cheerfully harangued him for being an idiot, and then sent him to bed over his loud objections. The injury wasn't too severe, but she could see the thin shadows of pure exhaustion under his eyes, and that was enough to overrule him. In the privacy of their room, he'd closed his eyes and his hand had curled around hers tightly.

"I'm glad I'm home," he murmured. 'Home' was always wherever she was; he'd told her that when they'd decided to tempt fate by exchanging rings.

She leaned forward to kiss his lips. "Me, too." He smelled of sand, sweat and blood, gun oil and metal, but as she inhaled, she could still smell that tang that reminded her of Crystal Peak, when it had just been the two of them. "Sleep, babe."

"Did Blair tell the colonel --" he started, but she put a finger over his lips.

"Hush. You gave your report; the rest can wait 'til morning."

"I don't like this place," he muttered after a moment. "They don't listen to me. I told them I needed another team to do the job properly. We barely got out." He trailed off and yawned.

"John, sleep," she urged him. "You can say you told them so, tomorrow. I'm sure they'll appreciate it," she added dryly, and knew he'd heard her when his lips twitched in a faint smile.

Being absorbed into the "official" command structure was exactly the two-edged sword he'd expected -- Command's greater resources made the team's counter-attacks more powerful, but he resented being under someone else's orders and strategy after so long on their own.

He finally drifted off, and when his hand loosened in hers she knew he was out. She was the only one he trusted enough to watch his back to sleep this deeply, so she kept watch, staying awake while he slept.

When she looked at him, she could see traces of the boy she'd first known, even though he'd gotten sharper and harder as the years passed, and death and war had tempered him to a blade. She didn't think she was that much different, even if she was far more skilled in fighting, not to mention human medicine rather than the dogs and cats she'd known a lifetime ago.

But of course, she _was_ different. She was even different from when John had left this last time, before she had known. She put her free hand on her stomach. She hadn't noticed her pants getting tight, which seemed absurd now that she'd missed all the obvious signs.

She was going to have to tell him soon. Not that he wouldn't be pleased, but she was pretty sure he didn't know this was coming, and she was a little afraid of what his ignorance might mean. They were already living with the specter of his future death -- would they have to live with the specter of their child dying as well?

Despite her best intentions, she fell asleep. She woke, snuggled into John's warmth, with one arm draped over his chest and a leg over his as if to make sure he didn't sneak out of bed while she slept. He was running a lock of her hair through her fingers, and when he realized she was awake, he turned his head to kiss her hair. "Morning."

"How do you feel?" she asked, automatically checking his forehead for fever.

He nudged her hand away. "Fine. So long as I don't try to move my leg," he admitted. "It stiffened up something fierce. I'll have to work it out slowly."

She didn't suggest crutches, knowing he'd never accept them. She slid her leg up his thigh and found something else that had stiffened up over night. She rose up on one elbow and smiled, as her hand moved down his front, teasingly. "I could help you with that."

As a bonus, it would keep him in bed for a little while longer. She was not above using sex to get her way. His hand caressed her shoulder and behind her neck, to pull her down to kiss. "I know you can. Missed you," he murmured into her mouth and along her neck, as his hands slid under her shirt.

She didn't know why no one was coming in to bother them, but she took it as a gift and made sure John wasn't thinking too much either.

After his fingers had coaxed another orgasm out of her, even when she was coming down from the last one, she collapsed on his chest, trembling and panting. "I love you, Mister Connor."

"Only half as much as I love you, Doctor Brewster-Connor." His fingers traced down her spine, making her shiver.

When she'd regained her breath, she lifted her head again so she could look down into his face and watch the impact of her words. "John, I have good news. I'm pregnant."

His reaction was all that she could have wished: wide-eyed shock and surprise, a flicker of confusion and fear, and then a slow spreading smile of joy. "Really?"

She laughed softly. "Really. I'm about four months along."

His arms went around her tightly, and he kissed her feverishly, everything he could reach. "I never thought -- after all this time, I didn't think it would happen," he admitted. "I never wanted to hope -- But you -- us -- "

She grinned at the sight of cool John Connor utterly gobsmacked. John rarely admitted to surprise, even when he was, so this was a memory she wanted to burn in her mind and hold onto forever.

He managed to get out, "You're going to have a baby?" His voice went up at the end in a disbelieving question, as if he feared he was imagining the whole conversation.

"Yes. A baby. You know, one of those miniature humans that grow up into big humans?" she teased, then grew more serious. "And while I'm not sure that a baby in post-Judgment Day apocalypse-land is the best idea --"

He covered her mouth. "No," he said, and his eyes were now intense, holding hers with that power he held inside. "A baby is hope, Kate. We need hope. All of us. If we don't have babies, the machines win by default, no matter what we do. It's a good thing, a miracle."

She nodded, absorbing the words.

"I'm -- " he stopped, and had to swallow to continue, as his hand went to her cheek and those fingers that knew so much about war and death stroked her skin with a gentleness he reserved only for her. "I never imagined -- I never believed we'd get a chance...."

Then, overwhelmed by his emotions, he seized her in a tight embrace, skin to skin, his rapid breaths in her ear.

After a little bit, when he'd calmed some, he whispered, "This means if that day comes -- you'll have something left of me. I'm glad about that, too."

"That day won't come. Forewarned is forearmed, and the future is not fixed," she said staunchly, but closed her eyes, able to imagine it too well. Some future T-800 model would gun him down, and when she sent it back in time to save herself, she might have a little boy or girl with John's eyes at her side...

He swallowed hard again. "If there's ever a choice, me or the baby, the baby comes first."

She wanted to violently reject that idea but managed to order him. "Don't let it come to that, John."

"I won't let anything happen to you," he promised, which wasn't quite the same thing. But she knew it was useless to protest. He'd give his life for hers, even before this news, and she could feel the fierce protectiveness of his arms and the grip of his hands.

"We're gonna be fine. You, me, the baby -- it's going to turn out okay. We're going to win." She kissed his chest and then laid her head down to listen to his heart beat beneath her ear. She could hear the rustling and distant banging of other people on the base, but in here, it was just the two of them and a precious moment of peace.


End file.
